In early 2001, I started
working on a project to create a customized Weber Smokey Mountain
Cooker—I called it "The Little Red Bullet Project".

In my mind's eye, it
would be a bright red cooker with a thermometer mounted in the
lid and a detachable work table mounted on the side. It would also incorporate some modifications
that I've documented on this website to improve the functionality of the
cooker.

The idea behind this
project was to have some fun working on it; to feature the finished
product here so you could enjoy it and maybe be inspired to try a project
like this yourself; and to donate the cooker to a charitable cause.

After the
tragic events of September 11, 2001, I worked quickly to finish the project so I
could offer it for sale on eBay's "Auction for America", an
effort to raise $100 million in 100 days for the victims and their
families. The winning bid of $760 was submitted by Capt. Stephen R. Martin
of Somerville, New Jersey. My employer at the time, Hewlett-Packard Company, matched
this amount, so that a total of $1,520 was raised for the American Red
Cross.

Here are some pictures of
this one-of-a-kind cooker and a description of the processes and
modifications that went into it. I hope you like what you see!

Editor's Note:
As you read this article, keep in mind that Weber made several changes
to the Weber Bullet in 2009 that eliminate the need for some of the
modifications described here, specifically adding a thermometer, marking
the access door, and closing gaps in the charcoal grate.

As always, click
on any of the pictures to view a larger image.

Introducing
"The Little Red Bullet"

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

A brand new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker with a powder coated
exterior finish. The color is called "Little Red Wagon."

My friend Kevin Kawahara was working on a Yamaha YSR50 motorcycle
restoration project. As part of that project, he had a powder coated
finish applied to the motorcycle's frame. I don't remember whether it
was his idea or my idea to put a powder coated finish on a Weber
Bullet, but once I got this idea in my head I couldn't shake it.

So in
early 2001 I
ordered a WSM from Amazon.com. The first thing I did was
to assemble it and take many of the pictures you see in the
WSM Product Information section. With that done, I prepared the cooker for the
powder coating process and for the modifications that would follow.

Cost:
$209 including shipping

Stripping
Down The Cooker

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

In order to powder
coat the cooker, I had to remove the lid handle and the four vent
dampers. Removing the handle was easy—I just unscrewed the one screw—but the dampers were a different story. To get those off, I had
to drill out the inside of the rivets to weaken them, then use a pair of pliers
to crush each rivet and pop it out.

Next, I drilled a hole in the lid for the Trend thermometer and two small holes
in the side of the cooking section for the work table mounting
hardware. I drilled the lid using the Unibit step drill bit process
described on the Installing A Thermometer
page and used a standard metal drill bit for the holes for the table mounting hardware.

With these items
completed, the cooker was ready for powder coating.

Cost: $39 for the Unibit step
drill bit.

Powder Coating The Cooker Parts

Photo 7

Photo 8

Photo 9

Photo 10

Photo 11

Photo 12

Photo 13

Powder coating is a
method of applying a decorative and protective finish to a wide range
of materials and products that are used by both industries and
consumers. The powder is a mixture of finely
ground particles of pigment and resin that is sprayed onto the
surface to be coated. The charged powder adheres to the
electrically grounded surface until heated and fused into a smooth
coating in a curing oven. The result is a uniform, durable,
high-quality and attractive finish.

I had the three WSM
pieces coated by Jeff Livingston of Superior Powder Coating in Santa
Clara, California. I spent the afternoon in Jeff's shop watching the
entire process from start to finish.

The process began with a hot detergent pressure wash and rinse of the three
sections (Photo 7). Jeff hung the
clean parts on a rolling rack and placed
them into the 24' long, 400°F curing oven to dry for 30 minutes
(Photo 8).

Once the parts had
cooled, a special masking tape was applied to the inside edges of each
section. The idea was to coat only the outside surfaces of the cooker,
leaving the standard porcelain finish on the inside. All holes and
openings were also masked on the inside of each section.

Jeff rolled the three
masked parts into the spray booth (Photo 9). He used a blast of compressed air
to make sure all the surfaces were dust-free, then he loaded up his
sprayer with the DuPont "Little Red Wagon" powder.

A ground wire was
attached to the rack from which the pieces were hanging, and Jeff
started to apply the coating (Photo 10). The spraying machine put an electrical
charge on the powder particles, causing them to stick to the pieces like a
magnet. Jeff carefully sprayed each piece, making sure that all
surfaces were coated completely and evenly.

Jeff removed the
masking tape and used a damp cloth to wipe away any powder from the
inside surfaces (Photo 11). He rolled the parts into the curing oven and baked
them at 400°F for 30 minutes (Photo 12). The parts had to reach a temperature of
390°F and be held there for 10 minutes.

The bright, shiny red
parts were removed from the oven and cooled before the trip back to my house (Photo
13).

While
the powder
coated finish on "The Little Red Bullet" is very durable, it is not as heat resistant as the underlying porcelain enamel
finish. In fact, it will begin to blister and flake off at temperatures above
600°F.

As part of this
project, I used an infrared thermometer to take temperature readings
of my own WSM while in use. I placed a chimney full of hot Kingsford
charcoal into the charcoal chamber and added another chimney of unlit
briquettes on top. With all the coals hot, the bottom of the charcoal
bowl measured over 760°F. When I assembled the cooker, adjusted
the bottom vents and brought the cooker down to a normal barbecuing
temperature range of 200-250°F, no part of the cooker was higher than
450°F.

As a result, it's important that this cooker always be brought up to
temperature slowly using the Minion Method.
It cannot be operated
at very high temperatures and the burning coals must be kept on the charcoal
grate and within
the charcoal chamber. This cooker cannot be used for high temperature grilling
or baking, and a fire should not be built directly on the inside
surface of the charcoal bowl.

Cost:
$162

Anodizing
The Legs

Photo 14

The three legs that
came with this cooker didn't look very good and I couldn't
bring myself to use them as-is. So I took them to Valley Plating in
Santa Clara, California for the application of a silver anodized
finish.

The legs were cleaned
and then placed in an electrically-charged sulfuric acid solution.
This caused oxidation—called "anodic film"—to form on the surface of the parts.
This film can be colored using a variety of organic dyes,
but I chose to leave the legs silver in color. The process was finished
by sealing the pores of the anodic film using a hot water bath.

The anodizing process
really improved the appearance of the legs. Since it's an integral
part of the aluminum, it will never flake off. It makes the surface
much harder than normal, so the legs are scratch and corrosion
resistant. Interestingly, it also renders them non-conductive
to electricity.

Cost: $50

Adding A Wooden Lid Handle

Photo 15

This Weber Bullet came with
the standard nylon plastic lid handle. Functional...but we all
like the old wooden handles better, right?

As luck would have
it, I was able to get my hands on an unstained wooden lid handle. Here
was my chance to put a spin on the classic handle...a little sanding,
three coats of spar urethane clear gloss finish, and I ended up with a one-of-a-kind
wooden handle that's protected from the sun, rain, and temperature
changes.

I think it's
beautiful, don't you? It also matches the natural finish of the work
table.

Cost: None. The
handle was provided by an anonymous donor and I already had the
finishing materials around the house.

Mounting
The Trend Thermometer

Photo 16

Photo 17

Using the process
described on the Installing A Thermometer
page, I used a Unibit step drill bit to enlarge the hole in a large
steel washer that acts as a spacer between the lid and the
thermometer. I slide the washer over the thermometer mounting base,
inserted the thermometer into the hole in the lid and fastened it
with an electrical conduit lock nut.

Cost: $40 for the
thermometer and connecting hardware.

Adding A Detachable
Work Table

Photo 18

Photo 19

Photo
20

Photo
21

Photo
22

Photo
23

Photo
24

Photo
25

Photo
26

You
may have read about this modification on the Work Tables page. The Weber kettle work table accessory is
designed for use on the 18-1/2" kettle grill, but with some
changes it can be adapted to the WSM. It provides a light duty surface
on which you can place tongs, gloves, or a Polder thermometer.

The first step was to
attach the mounting hardware to the holes I had drilled in the cooking
section. The fastener I chose is called a turn button. It has a
spring-loaded head that turns 90* to lock
down whatever is placed over the head. You can find this fastener at
most hardware and marine supply stores. The turn button was attached
with two stainless steel screws, washers and nuts (Photo 19).

Next
I had to modify the tubular brace and create a new type of connection
between the brace and the support bracket. I shortened the brace and
made an oval-shaped hole in one end to fit over the turn button. On
the other end I created a fork and a hole. As shown in Photo 23, the
fork slides under a screw in the flange, then a cotterless hitch pin
is inserted through holes in each piece to lock them together.

The
last step was to add a shock cord to keep the cutting board and
support bracket tightly connected to the cooker. I added an eye bolt
to the bottom of the tubular brace (Photo 24) and D-rings to the
bottom side of the cutting board (Photo 25). A short red shock cord
passes through the eye bolt and connects to the D-rings, helping to
stabilize the whole assembly.

To
attach the work table to the cooker, simply connect the brace to the
support bracket using the hitch pin, hang the bracket from the edge of
the cooking section and fasten the other end of the brace to the turn
button. Put the cutting board in place and attach the shock cord to
the D-rings. To remove the work table, just reverse
these steps.

What's nice about
this modification is that you can remove the cooking section with the
work table still attached, as shown in Photo 26. (This picture was
taken before the shock cord was added.)

Cost: $50 for the
work table accessory and connecting hardware.

Using Stainless
Steel Inset Hex Head Damper Fasteners

Photo
27

I knew early on that
one of the keys to success for this project would be to reattach the
four vent dampers in a way that would look good and work well. I
quickly learned that I could not duplicate the original rivets used by
Weber—they were industrial grade and unusual in size and
construction. Even if I could acquire them, they required industrial
fastening equipment that I didn't have access to.

After investigating a
lot of alternative fasteners, I settled on 1/4" x
5/16" stainless steel
screws with an inset hex head and split lock washers and nuts. The head on these screws matched the
head size and shape of the original rivets, and the inset hex added sort of a
high-tech look.

The only glitch was
that there was a little bit of play between the screws and the holes
in the dampers, lid and charcoal bowl, allowing the damper to move a
tiny bit off-center from the vent holes. This couldn't happen with the
original rivets because they expanded to fill the holes completely. I
wrapped a long, thin strip of aluminum foil around the upper portion
of each screw to eliminate this play, but I have no idea how well this
will hold up with use.

Cost: $5

Marking
The Access Door Knob

Photo
28

This is another item
you may have read about on the Access Door
Modifications page. One of my pet peeves is that you can't always
tell when the door is latched properly. My solution here was to buy a
sheet of 1/2" adhesive vinyl lettering at the office supply store
and use the top portion of the "!" symbol turned upside down
as an arrow.

Cost: $4

Increasing Cooking Capacity

Photo
29

Photo
30

Photo
31

At times we all long
for increased cooking capacity in the WSM. I've documented some of the
approaches people use on the Increasing
Cooking Capacity page.

For this project, I
wanted to have a total of four cooking surfaces: the standard upper
and lower grates, plus optional surfaces that could be placed over the
two standard grates.

Increasing capacity
above the upper grate was easy—I bought a Big
Green Egg grid extender (Photo 29). This 15-1/2" cooking grate has two legs that attach to the WSM grate, and the grate surface swings up on both sides to
access the grate below. The
distance between the grid extender and the WSM grate is 3-3/4". The grid extender
costs about $20 and can be ordered from The Big Green Egg at 770-938-9394.

To increase the
capacity above the lower grate, I bought an additional lower grate from
Weber and took the two grates to Applied Welding Technology in
Mountain View, California. They fabricated a stainless steel stand that holds the
second grate 4" above the regular one (Photo 30). It consists of two hoops slightly smaller
in diameter than the cooking grates and a series of vertical pieces
connecting the hoops. The stand sits on the regular grate and
has a series of guides that lock it in place. The additional
grate is placed on top
of the stand. Two small handles on the stand stick up
through the grate, allowing the grate and stand to be
lifted off as a single unit.

As I put the
additional grate and stand in and out of the cooker several times, I
noticed that it would catch on the bolts that attach the grate
brackets to the inside of the cooking section. Replacing the standard
screws with more of the shorter stainless steel inset hex head screws
solved the problem.

Since the charcoal
grate is manufactured with openings on either side that allow charcoal
to fall through, I had the welder close these gaps. An additional grate rod
was added to the left and right of the two parallel braces running
across the grate (Photo 32).

I also bought a Weber
#72501 charcoal grate that sits inside the charcoal chamber at a 90*
angle to the original grate (Photo 33). This 13-1/2" grate will prevent small pieces of briquette or
lump charcoal from falling through.

I'm hoping that these
modifications will help protect the powder coated finish on the
charcoal bowl...only time and use will tell.

Cost:
Modifying the charcoal grate was included in the welding charge for the cooking grate stand; $9 for the secondary
charcoal grate.

Wrap-Up

Total
Project Cost: $670.

The total elapsed
project time was six months, but most of the work was completed in the last two weeks of the project when
I really got motivated to finish it so I could put it up for auction.

Other than the
temperature concerns mentioned above, there's no special care required
for the powder coated finish. It can be cleaned with a soft damp cloth
and water, dishwashing liquid or Windex. Abrasive cleaners, harsh
chemical cleaners and acetone (e.g. finger nail polish remover) should be avoided. Minor surface scratches can be
polished out using a very mild automotive car cleaner/wax like
Maguire's—but make sure to test on an inconspicuous spot first.

Postscript

Photo
34

Photo
35

Photo
36

Photo
37

In February 2002, I
received an e-mail from Capt. Martin that included a number of photos
of The Little Red Bullet in action. Note that in Photo 35, it really stands out from the rest of the pack!

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